The first time I ever heard of powdered peanut butter, I could not help but to wonder just what in sacreligious, voodoo kind of malarkey could this possibly be. I have always been a peanut butter purist, my favorite being Smucker’s Natural Creamy that is only made with two ingredients — peanuts and a dash of salt. Before I quit consuming sugar, I was also partial to Jiff, Skippy and Peter Pan. I have loved peanut butter my entire life, and could not believe anyone thought a powdered peanut butter you mix with water could ever be a good idea.

I was wrong…

Powdered peanut butter is a great product, despite not being all that good in my opinion for a sandwich. It is more a texture thing for me than anything, since the flavor is still pretty good. I love adding it to oatmeal and protein shakes. I also find it to be wonderful on apple slices

I normally buy Walmart’s brand of powdered peanut butter as it is the best value for the price, and I can tell no difference in the flavor between theirs and others I have tried such as PB2 and Kroger’s Simple Truth. Saturday when I was grocery shopping my store had neither the Simple Truth or PB2 brands, but they did have PBfit on the shelf which I had never seen there before. Since I did not feel like driving over to Walmart just for powdered peanut butter, I bought the PBfit without even looking at the nutrition and ingredients label.

I never buy a new product without first looking at the label carefully.

I made the assumption that PBfit would be just like the other products I have used.

I know better than to just make assumptions!

I like to mix a little Splenda and Saigon Cinnamon into my powdered peanut butter and then spread it on an Ole Extreme Wellness, high fiber tortilla as a delicious and healthy snack. Since I had never tried PBfit, I decided to forego the Splenda and cinnamon in order to get a good taste of this product as it comes from the jar.

My first impression was it actually tasted better than the others.

It had a sweetness to it. That sweetness was a huge red flag that I had better check the nutrition and ingredient label. To my dismay, this product contains coconut palm sugar.

I am carb addicted, Type 2 diabetes runs strong on both sides of my family. When I was heavier, I was told by my doctor that I was prediabetic. Thank God, being prediabetic can be turned completely around through good nutrition and exercise. As a rule, I do not eat anything that contains added sugars, for any reason, ever…

The other brands of powdered peanut butter I have used only provided 50 calories per two tablespoon serving. If I had read the label and saw that PBfit provided 70 calories for a two tablespoon serving, I would have been going straight to the ingredient list, but I didn’t this time.

You might be thinking that 70 calories is not bad, and the sugar content is minimal.

You might also notice that at 5 grams total carbs, minus 3 grams of fiber for a net total of 2 grams of carbohydrates is actually pretty good. You would be correct!

 You would be correct also in that coconut sugar has a lower glycemic index (35) than white sugar (60 to 65), meaning it doesn’t spike your blood glucose and insulin like table sugar does. Regular table sugar and high-fructose corn syrup don’t contain any vital nutrients and therefore supply “empty” calories. Coconut sugar does retain quite a bit of the nutrients found in the coconut palm such as the minerals iron, zinc, calcium and potassium, along with some short-chain fatty acids like polyphenols and antioxidants along with a fiber called inulin. But, it is still very high in calories (same as regular sugar) and you’d have to eat a ridiculous amount of it to satisfy your need for the those particular nutrients. It should not take being a doctor or rocket scientist to understand that added sugar is unhealthy because of how it causes a significant rise in blood sugar levels. Added sugars are calorie dense and nutrient poor,  it provides virtually no vitamins or minerals.

Table sugar has a high fructose content. Within your body, only your liver cells break down fructose. What happens to fructose inside liver cells is complicated. One of the end products is triglyceride, a form of fat. Uric acid and free radicals are also formed. None of this is good. Triglycerides can build up in liver cells and damage liver function. Triglycerides released into the bloodstream can contribute to the growth of fat-filled plaque inside artery walls. Despite claims that coconut sugar is effectively fructose-free, it’s made of 70–80% sucrose, which is half fructose. For this reason, coconut sugar supplies almost the same amount of fructose as regular sugar, gram for gram.  Over time and when consumed in excess, added sugars may cause all sorts of problems like metabolic syndrome, obesity, diabetes and heart disease. We can look around and see people with these issues everywhere we turn in this modern world. Just think of the percentage of people you know who have weight issues or are outright obese compared to those who are fit and trim. In western society, 68% of our population have weight issues and it is not getting any better.

You may or may not care about the sugar content in this or any other product. Maybe sugar has not had a negative effect on your body. However, for those of us who are carb addicted it is not good to make exceptions and consume any of it. Each individual has a different threshold for how much sugar and simple carbs they can consume without it causing ravenous cravings later. But for some of us, our threshold can be quite low. I am one of these people with a low threshold. For me to make an exception to consume sugar is no different that when an alcoholic makes an exception to drink a beer. Each time we make exceptions, it just becomes easier and easier to continue making exceptions in the future.

Because of the sugar, I am going to chuck the rest of this new jar of PBfit into the trash. However, they do have a sugar free version sweetened with monk fruit that I will be trying should I ever see it in my grocery store. Until then, I will stick to my other brands.